Tom Quackenbush wrote in
:

Not Me wrote:
"Tom Quackenbush"

| I should also mention that CO is heavier than O2 so the
| atmosphere
| at the bottom of the rat hole will be have increasingly
| concentrated CO levels. If all else fails the critter will have
| one h*ll of a head ache.
|
| C = 12, O = 16, N = 14
|
| CO = 28, O2 = 32, N2 = 28

The real world physics/dynamics is not quite that simple but
sufficient to say CO is heavier than air and will settle to the lowest
level i.e. the bottom of the rat hole.

Are you sure you're not thinking of CO2?

Carbon monoxide is obviously lighter than air (but not by much). If
you don't believe me, Google for "carbon monoxide lighter air".

R,
Tom Q.

If you work out Van der Waal's equation:
http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genche...eviation5.html

at 1 atm and 20C, I get

02 1 mol / 2.74 L
N2 1 mol / 2.74 L
CO 1 mol / 2.73 L
CO2 1 mol / 2.49 L

making CO2 the most dense (unless I solved the equation wrong which is
entirely likely: v^3 - bv^2 = av - ab - RT = 0).

The difference between CO and O2 doesn't seem remarkable enough to be
significant, but I guess at greater concentrations it'd be workable. I
think you'd be more likely to kill yourself than the rat, though.

[I'm not a chemist or physicist, so all this could a bunch of hokey.]
(rec.gardens)